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Insight on the News - National
Issue: 3/2/04
Special
Report
Saffuri's Ties to Terror
Suspects
By Kenneth R. Timmerman
The rise of Khaled Saffuri to political
prominence within the U.S. Muslim
community has all the ingredients of a
Horatio Alger success story. Brought up as
a stateless exile in Kuwait, Saffuri came
to America as a student in 1982, went to
college in San Diego, and soon gravitated
into the world of Muslim activism.
A talented fund-raiser and
behind-the-scenes power broker, Saffuri
built bridges to politicians in both
parties by generously contributing to
their election campaigns, from California
libertarian Rep. Dana Rohrabacher in the
GOP to Rep. Cynthia McKinney, the
hard-left Georgia Democrat. He has worked
to get President Bill Clinton to intervene
in Bosnia. He has taken members of
Congress on trips to Arab countries. He
has lobbied hard but quietly against
pro-Israel legislation. In 1998, along
with Republican activist Grover Norquist,
Saffuri established the Islamic Institute
in Washington with the stated purpose of
promoting free-market ideals in the Muslim
world and of bringing American Muslims
into the Republican Party.
Recognition of his role came with a
thunderclap during the 2000 presidential
campaign, when Karl Rove named him the
Bush campaign's point man for Muslim
outreach. With George W. Bush in the White
House, Khaled Saffuri had arrived.
By all accounts, Saffuri put his new
prominence to use, promoting the friends
who had helped him achieve his newfound
status and advocating for the issues about
which they cared. One by one, he
introduced them to President Bush and his
entourage. With Saffuri frequently smiling
in the background, they proudly posed for
campaign photographs and, later, attended
White House events.
Now, however, some of the very people
Saffuri introduced to Bush and Rove are in
federal prison on terrorism-related
charges. Others have been expelled from
the country. Still other former colleagues
and donors have become subjects of a
massive federal probe into U.S. funding of
terrorist organizations that is code-named
Operation Greenquest.
In a series of interviews with Insight
over the course of more than two years,
Saffuri and his supporters claim he has
been given a bum rap by critics who point
to the alleged terrorist ties as a reason
why the White House should distance itself
from Saffuri and his friends.
Norquist, the conservative fund-raiser
and antipork president of Americans for
Tax Reform, insists that any attempt to
tie Saffuri to terrorist supporters is
"guilt by association." Those who make
such accusations, Norquist tells
reporters, are "racists and bigots."
But Saffuri's ties to radical
Islamists and apologists for terror are
neither superficial nor coincidental. An
Insight investigation has uncovered a
consistent pattern of fund-raising and
influence operations in which Saffuri
played a prominent role side by side with
Abdurahman Alamoudi, a well-known Muslim
activist who was Saffuri's employer at the
American Muslim Council (AMC). Alamoudi
was arrested last September on charges of
illegally taking cash payments from the
government of Libya in exchange for
lobbying the Bush administration to lift
sanctions against the Qaddafi regime.
Alamoudi also was one of the leaders
of a vast network of Hamas supporters
operating across the United States under
the guise of American Muslim activist
groups.
At a rally in front of the White House
on Oct. 28, 2000, Alamoudi told the
audience that reports he was a supporter
of Hamas were accurate. "Anybody support
this Hamas here? Anybody's [sic]
is a supporter of Hamas here? Anybody's
[sic] is a supporter of Hamas
here? Hear that Bill Clinton? We are all
supporters of Hamas! Allah akbar [God
is great]! I wish to add here I am
also a supporter of Hezbollah!"
On June 2, 2000, the U.S.-based
al-Zaitounah newspaper interviewed
Alamoudi in English on his pro-Hamas
activities at the AMC. "Our position with
regard to the peace process is
well-known," he said. "We are the ones who
went to the White House and defended what
is called Hamas." According to the
Jerusalem Post, Alamoudi attended a
leadership conference in Beirut in January
2001 along with top leaders of Hamas,
Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad and al-Qaeda.
These and other Alamoudi actions and
statements were cited by Immigration and
Customs Enforcement agent Brett Gentrup in
a September 2003 affidavit in support of
Alamoudi's arrest.
Saffuri tells Insight that Alamoudi
won praise from American Jewish leaders
for his work on Bosnia in the 1990s. "I
have a letter from 1997 from the AJC
[American Jewish Committee] to
Alamoudi and cc'd [copied] to me,"
he says. Saffuri promised to send Insight
a copy of the letter, but an aide later
reported he was unable to locate it.
Officials at the AJC could find no trace
of such a letter either. Saffuri also told
Insight that the AJC "joined" the American
Task Force on Bosnia, which AJC officials
say is untrue.
"The only time Jewish organizations
did something - not really together - but
in coordination with Muslim groups were
demonstrations against the genocide in
Bosnia," says Yehudit Bartsky, an aide to
AJC President David Harris. But that
cooperation evaporated in 1994, once
statements by Alamoudi and other Muslim
leaders condemning the Oslo agreements
became public. "Everybody was shocked to
see they were opposed to Oslo, which all
the Jewish organizations supported at the
time," she says. After the horrific spate
of suicide bombings in 1996, which the AMC
and other Muslim organizations refused to
condemn, those ties - such as they were -
evaporated. "So 1997 would be really
late," Bartsky adds.
Saffuri tells Insight that the suicide
bombings used by Palestinian Islamic
Jihad, Hamas and others is "a condemned
tactic. It's horrible, it's wrong, it's
un-Islamic, it's unethical, because you're
targeting innocent civilians."
Saffuri claims he broke with Alamoudi
"after a year-and-a-half of bickering and
arguing." But the arguments weren't over
Alamoudi's support for suicide bombing,
but over the latter's demand for a strict
Islamic lifestyle in the office. "When I
came, I was the first one to hire women
without cover," Saffuri says. "Most people
would hire from the mosque. I told him
this was wrong. I hired peoples with
skills. I ended up leaving because I
couldn't work with that style of
work."
Another key Saffuri ally, Sami Amin
al-Arian, was arrested on Feb. 20, 2003,
by federal agents in Tampa, Fla., because
of his alleged ties to Palestinian
terrorists. Like Saffuri, al-Arian is a
Palestinian who came to this country from
Kuwait. He was the subject of a
long-standing criminal investigation
because of the leadership role he
allegedly played in Palestinian Islamic
Jihad, a group that has claimed
responsibility for the murder of hundreds
of Israelis and more than a dozen
Americans, and that raises money for
terror in the United States [see
"Controversial Professor Arrested in
Florida on Terrorism Charges," posted
March 4, 2003, at Insight Online].
Al-Arian was one of a group of Muslim
leaders who met with President Bush in the
White House in May 2001 as part of White
House outreach to the Muslim community.
The person who helped set up that meeting
and who chose the participants was Khaled
Saffuri, White House officials tell
Insight.
Federal prosecutors now believe
al-Arian was a founder of Palestinian
Islamic Jihad, and that the organization
actually was created in the United States
by Muslim immigrants in the 1980s who used
America's lax immigration laws and strong
civil-liberties protections to shield them
from federal law-enforcement
investigations.
The federal indictment against
al-Arian alleges that he used his position
as a professor at the University of South
Florida to gain visas for terrorists to
enter the United States. It also alleges
that he transferred cash into overseas
accounts that were used for the planning
or support of terrorist operations that
killed Americans. All through the 1990s,
Saffuri worked together with al-Arian and
Alamoudi to prevent the Immigration and
Naturalization Service (INS) from using
secret evidence in deportation hearings,
as the INS was seeking to deport top
leaders of Palestinian Islamic Jihad and
Hamas. During the 2000 election campaign,
Saffuri's chief effort was to get the Bush
campaign to support the repeal of secret
evidence, a position Bush publicly adopted
in his final debate with Al Gore.
After the Sept. 11 attacks on the
United States, the use of secret evidence
was expanded under the USA PATRIOT Act.
Saffuri and his friends lobbied heavily
against the new law and now are trying to
get it repealed. They have won support
from key conservatives such as Norquist
and former congressman Bob Barr of
Georgia. Many conservatives and
libertarians are made nervous by what they
regard as a slippery slope.
Far more disturbing to
national-security analysts are Saffuri's
long-standing ties to Jamal Barzinji, an
Iraqi who heads a network of investment
companies and nonprofit groups that have
been targeted by the Greenquest task force
investigating terrorist-related fund
raising. Barzinji's Marjac group of
investment companies and the various
charities he heads share office space,
accountants and interlocking boards. They
sometimes are referred to by federal
prosecutors as "555 Grove Street," an
address they used in suburban Herndon, Va.
Money financing the 555 Grove Street
network has been traced back to big-name
Saudi investors.
Organizations operating out of
Barzinji's offices included the
International Islamic Relief Organization,
the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY),
and al-Haramain, all of which have been
blacklisted by the U.S. Treasury
Department because of their ties to
al-Qaeda. Until the Sept. 11, 2001,
attacks, the head of the WAMY office in
Herndon was Abdullah bin Laden, younger
brother of the Saudi terrorist who heads
al-Qaeda. All of these groups were raided
and their files seized by the Greenquest
task force on March 20, 2002. Alamoudi's
residence also was searched during that
raid.
A lawyer representing Barzinji and his
corporate network, Nancy Luqu, insists
that her clients have not been charged
with any crime. But a previously sealed
affidavit that lays out the government's
motives for the massive raid alleges that
Barzinji and his Safa Group companies were
"suspected of providing material support
to terrorists, money laundering, and tax
evasion through the use of a variety of
for-profit companies and ostensible
charitable entities under their control,
most of which are located at 555 Grove
Street, Herndon, Virginia."
Saffuri acknowledged to Insight that
both Barzinji and Alamoudi provided
$20,000 checks to help him and Norquist
establish the Islamic Institute in
1998.
While not denying his friendship and
business relationships with Alamoudi,
al-Arian or Barzinji, Saffuri tells
Insight he was unaware of their alleged
terror ties. "What do I have to do with
that?" Saffuri exclaims. "I guarantee you,
there are people you worked for in your
lifetime who later did something wrong. I
didn't know they were involved in
[activities] that were under
investigation." However, none of the three
ever sought to disguise their support for
Palestinian terror groups, speaking often
at public rallies and private conferences
in praise of the terrorists.
Saffuri says he first met Barzinji in
1988 but only met Alamoudi three years
later, even though Alamoudi was Barzinji's
top aide at the time. "In 1990 and 1991,
George Bush Senior was meeting with them,
and he was taking advice from them on how
to deal with Iraq. You know, when I looked
from the outside, I saw them meeting with
the president and said, 'Wow, that's
impressive.' Seeing those people going
inside and outside the White House, that
gave them legitimacy. So for me to come
and work with them five years later, I
should not be suspicious of anything they
do," Saffuri says.
In his efforts to distance himself
from Alamoudi, Saffuri claims he went to
work for him at the AMC in 1995 but left
some 18 months later after the two had a
falling out. But documents uncovered
during Insight's investigation show that
Saffuri had been working for Alamoudi
since at least 1993 and stayed with him
until May 1998.
In April 1993, Saffuri was employed as
executive director of the American Task
Force for Bosnia, a registered charitable
organization that was lobbying Congress
and the Clinton White House to get the
United States to intervene militarily on
behalf of the Bosnian Muslim population,
then under siege by Bosnian Serbs. The
organization listed its headquarters as
1212 New York Ave. N.W., Suite 400, in
Washington - the headquarters of the
American Muslim Council, then headed by
Alamoudi.
At the time, Osama bin Laden's
al-Qaeda organization actively was
recruiting and training Arab fighters to
fight alongside the Bosnian Muslims.
Bosnia had become the focus of the
worldwide "jihad" after the Soviets
withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989.
Saffuri says he frequently went to
Bosnia for trips lasting four to five
weeks at a time during this period. After
returning to Washington from Bosnia in
April 1993, he says, he was asked by
Alamoudi to serve as the treasurer of a
newly formed political-action committee
(PAC), National Muslims for a Better
America (NMBA).
In filings with the Federal Election
Commission, which Insight reviewed, the
new group listed its address as 1212 New
York Ave. N.W., Suite 400 - the
headquarters of the AMC. Saffuri did not
explain why he would "take orders" from
Alamoudi in 1993 to become treasurer of
the new PAC if he didn't start working for
Alamoudi until 1995.
While it was never a major lobbying
force, NMBA is significant because its
donor list includes a stunningly high
proportion of individuals who have been
publicly identified as leaders of
terrorist groups, or have been arrested,
expelled or currently are under
investigation for allegedly raising funds
for terrorist organizations. Among the
contributors to Saffuri's AMC-sponsored
PAC:
- Hisham al-Talib, who lists his
employer alternately as the SAAR
Foundation and Marjac Investment Group,
both controlled by Barzinji and raided
by Greenquest on March 20, 2002.
- Muhammad Ashraf, "an officer and/or
director of Safa Group companies
including Sterling Investment Group,
Sterling Charitable Gift Fund and York
Foundation," according to the
government's affidavit in support of
the raid. Ashraf's residence at 12528
Rock Ridge Road in Herndon also was
searched during the March 2002
raid.
- Mohammad Jaglit, a SAAR Foundation
director considered by federal
investigators to be a key figure in the
terror-support networks. The affidavit
cites Jaglit as "an active supporter of
[Sami] al-Arian and
[Palestinian Islamic Jihad],
both ideologically and financially" and
notes that letters accompanying checks
he sent to al-Arian from the SAAR
Foundation instructed al-Arian "not to
disclose the contribution publicly or
to the media." Jaglit's residence also
was raided.
- Yaquib Mirza, a Pakistani national
considered by authorities to be the
financial wizard of the Safa/SAAR
network, who appears as the accountant
for scores of Barzinji companies.
- Basheer Nafi, identified in the
affidavit as the "U.S. agent of PIJ
[Palestinian Islamic Jihad]."
Nafi, a 50-year-old Ph.D., was deported
from the United States in 1996 for visa
violations, according to government
sources. According to a government
indictment, he "was a member and
founder of PIJ" while he was working
with al-Arian and PIJ leader Ramadan
Abdallah Shallah at the World Islamic
Studies Enterprise (WISE) in Florida,
now identified by federal prosecutors
as a front for Palestinian Islamic
Jihad.
- Iqbal Unus, a director of Safa
Group companies "including Child
Development Foundation," whose Herndon
residence was raided.
Other donors to Saffuri's PAC whose
houses or offices were raided by
Greenquest, say federal authorities,
include Wael al-Khairo, Ahmad al-Shaer,
Ahmad Khatib and Ali Abuzakook - all
Barzinji employees - as well as Mohammad
Salim Attia, Hibba Abugideiri and Hussam
Osman, who worked for the Saudi-funded
International Institute of Islamic
Thought, and Fakri Barzinji, Altogether,
say federal authorities, Saffuri raised
slightly more than $28,000 for the
AMC-sponsored PAC and distributed it to
members of Congress including Rohrabacher
and Democrats McKinney, David Bonior and
John Conyers of Michigan, James Traficant
of Ohio, Peter DeFazio of Oregon, and Nick
Rahall of West Virginia.
What united all the recipients, who
ranged from far-left Democrats to
libertarians, was their support for
Palestinian causes and their hostility to
the state of Israel.
During the entire period that the
AMC's PAC operated, from 1993-98, Saffuri
was listed as its treasurer. He signed all
the papers, say authorities, and made all
the reports to the FEC. And yet, Saffuri
insists he had nothing to do with the PAC.
"If these guys gave checks to Alamoudi
[for NMBA], it doesn't mean much,"
Saffuri says now. "I was an employee of
his. He asked me to do it. I did what he
asked me to do. In the end, he was paying
the check."
Of the 40 donors to the PAC, the
documents show, nearly half have been
arrested or are under investigation for
terrorist ties.
"Look, I work with people who also do
wonderful things," Saffuri says when asked
about the terrorist ties of NMBA donors.
"Look at Abduwahab [al-Kebsi],"
Saffuri's assistant at the Islamic
Institute. "Abdu is doing a project to
promote democracy for the National
Endowment for Democracy in Iraq. Another
staff member of the institute is working
for the Department of Homeland Security.
Another staffer is working for USAID
[U.S. Agency for International
Development]. If there was one shred
of evidence that we were a security risk,
they would be talking to me, not you. I am
invited to meet with [FBI Director
Robert] Mueller at the FBI, on
average, every six months. I think if
there is a problem with me, I wouldn't be
at these meetings."
When asked by Wall Street Journal
reporter Glenn Simpson if he thought
radical Muslim groups such as the friends
and associates of Khaled Saffuri were
exercising "undue influence" at the White
House, Karl Rove simply shrugged and
replied, "No."
As evidence of Saffuri's ties to three
prominent terrorist suspects deepens, say
alarmed conservatives, those blanket
denials may look to be increasingly
hollow.
Original
story:
Kenneth R. Timmerman is a senior
writer for Insight.
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